Again, I, in the first acts of my faith, when I am come at Christ, do not accept of him, because, I know I am righteous, either with imputed righteousness, or with that which is inherent: both these, as to my present privilege in them, may be hidden from mine eyes, and I only put upon taking of encouragement to close with Christ for life and righteousness, as he is set forth to be a propitiation before mine eyes, in the word of the truth of the gospel; to which word I adhere as, or because I find, I want peace with God in my soul, and because I am convinced, that the means of peace is not to be found any where but in Jesus Christ. Now, by my thus adhering to him, I find stay for my soul, and peace to my conscience, because the word doth ascertain me, that he that believeth on him hath remission of sins, hath eternal life, and shall be saved from the wrath to come.
But alas! who knows the many straights, and as I may say, the stress of weather, I mean the cold blasts of hell, with which the poor soul is assaulted, betwixt its receiving of grace, and its sensible closing with Jesus Christ? 26 None, I daresay, but IT and its FELLOWS. "The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." (Prov 14:10) No sooner doth Satan perceive that God is doing with the soul, in a way of grace and mercy, but he endeavoureth what he may, to make the renewing thereof bitter and wearisome work to the sinner. O what mists, what mountains, what clouds, what darkness, what objections, what false apprehensions of God, of Christ, of grace, of the word, and of the soul's condition, doth he now lay before it, and haunt it with; whereby he fighteth, dejecteth, casteth down, daunteth, distresseth, and almost driveth it quite into despair. Now, by the reason of these things, faith, and all the grace that is in the soul, is hard put to it to come at the promise; and by the promise to Christ, as it is said, when the tempest and great danger of shipwreck lay upon the vessel in which Paul was, They "had much work to come by the boat." (Acts 27:16) For Satan's design is, if he cannot keep the soul from Christ, to make his coming to him, and closing with him, as hard, difficult, and troublesome, as he by his devices can. But faith, true justifying faith, is a grace, that is not weary by all that Satan can do; but meditateth upon the word, and taketh stomach, and courage, fighteth, and crieth, and by crying and fighting, by help from heaven, its way is made through all the oppositions that appear so mighty, and draweth up at last to Jesus Christ, into whose bosom it putteth the soul, where, for the time, it sweetly resteth after its marvellous tossings to and fro.27
And besides what hath been said, let me yet illustrate this truth unto you by this familiar similitude.
Suppose a man, a traitor, that by the law should die for his sin, is yet such an one, that the king hath exceeding kindness for; may not the king pardon this man of his clemency; yea, order that his pardon should be drawn up and sealed, and so in every sense be made sure; and yet, for the present, keep all this close enough from the ears, or the knowledge of the person therein concerned. Yea, may not the king after all leave this person, with others under the same transgression, to sue for, and obtain this pardon with great expense and difficulty, with many tears and heart-achings, with many fears, and dubious cogitations.
Why this is the case between God and the soul that he saveth; he saveth him, pardoneth him, and secureth him from the curse and death that to him is due for sin, but yet doth not tell him so, but ascends in his great suit unto God for it. Only this difference we must make in this between God and the potentates of this world: God cannot pardon before the sinner stands before him righteous by the righteousness of Christ; because he has in judgment, and justice, and righteousness threatened and concluded, that he that wants righteousness shall die.
And I say again, because this righteousness is God's, and at God's disposal only; it is God that must make a man righteous before he can forgive him his sins, or bestow upon him of his secondary blessings; to wit, his Spirit, and the graces thereof. And I say again, it must be this righteousness; for it can be no other, that must justify a sinner from sin in the sight of God, and from the sentence of his law. But
(2.) This is, and must be the way of God with the sinner, that faith may not only have an object to work upon, but a motive to work by.
Here, as I said, Faith hath an object to work upon, and that is the person of Christ, and that personal righteousness of his, which he in the days of his flesh did finish to justify sinners withal. This is, I say, the object of faith for justification, whereunto the soul by it doth continually resort. Hence David said to Christ, "Be thou my strong habitation"; or as you have it in the margin, "Be thou to me for a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort" (Psa 71:3): And two things he inserts by so saying.
The first is, That the Christian is a man under continual exercises, sometimes one way, and sometimes another; but all his exercises have a tendency in them more or less to spoil him; if he deals with them hand to hand; therefore he is rather for flying than standing; for flying to Christ, than for grappling with them in and by his own power.
The second is, That Christ is of God, provided to be our shelter as to this very thing. Hence his name is said to be a strong tower, and that the righteous run into it, and are safe. (Prov 18:10) That also of David in the 56th psalm is very pregnant to this purpose; "Mine enemies," saith he, "would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me, O thou most high." And what then? Why, "what time I am afraid," saith he, "I will trust in thee." Thus you see, faith hath an object to work upon to carry the soul unto, and to secure the soul in, in times of difficulty, and that they are almost continually, and that object is Jesus Christ, and his righteousness. But,